Wednesday, February 09, 2011
A Royal Screwjob
The thrill of going to a live sporting event, especially those with a championship on the line, is an experience that can't be beat. I actually still can't believe I turned down a ticket to the World Juniors gold medal game in 2009 because, get this, I had an Ultimate game that night. Forget the fact that I can't even remember who we played or even if we won, it's a mistake I'll never make again if the opportunity comes around once more (the dedication I show my teammates though, eh?).
Anyway, my experience is somewhat different than what I want to blog about with you now because at least with my situation, the ticket was a surprise and it was a simple car ride away to get to the game. Can you imagine spending thousands of dollars in air travel, hotel, food, etc. plus the hundreds or thousands of dollars for tickets on the sporting event itself...and being turned away at the gate at game time?
Now I bet you may be thinking about the 400 unlucky fans at Sunday's Superbowl who were turned away because the temporary seating structure conjured up for the event wasn't approved by the fire marshal. That's also a big slap in the face, but the incident I'm talking about happened at the FIFA Asian Cup final held in Qatar on January 29th.
The final was played between Australia and Japan (Japan won in overtime 1-0 in case you care, woof) so there were a few fans who wanted to see the game that had to hop on a plane to witness the final. But security, the riot police, apparently blamed too many people arriving without tickets that somehow gained access to the grounds that caused all the security problems, which led them to close the entrance gates leaving people with valid tickets unable to watch the game. They further explained fans WITH tickets should have shown up early to guarantee access. Sorry, but in every sporting event I've been too, you could show up five minutes before the game ends if you wanted and still get to your seats. To throw salt in the wound, the Qatar people who organized the event said they'll "consider" issuing refunds to the people with valid tickets who were shut out. What? Consider? (The day after the event, they wised up and announced refunds were coming).
Qatar was recently awarded the 2022 World Cup, and I bet FIFA officials are reviewing that decision already. I can only imagine the disappointment of being a fan who saved their money and planned their time to come out to such a huge event and endure such heartache when you can't get into the event you paid for and looked forward to.
The NFL tried to make amends with the Superbowl fans by giving back three times the face value of the tickets, in addition to free tickets for next year's event. Much better compensation than the Qatar people offered, but still, if you're a Green Bay fan, you missed seeing your team win it all. Would you be excited to see the Bills play the Cardinals in 2012? Not likely.
I hope nothing ever like that happens to me with my future Senators Stanley Cup final tickets.
Anyway, my experience is somewhat different than what I want to blog about with you now because at least with my situation, the ticket was a surprise and it was a simple car ride away to get to the game. Can you imagine spending thousands of dollars in air travel, hotel, food, etc. plus the hundreds or thousands of dollars for tickets on the sporting event itself...and being turned away at the gate at game time?
Now I bet you may be thinking about the 400 unlucky fans at Sunday's Superbowl who were turned away because the temporary seating structure conjured up for the event wasn't approved by the fire marshal. That's also a big slap in the face, but the incident I'm talking about happened at the FIFA Asian Cup final held in Qatar on January 29th.
The final was played between Australia and Japan (Japan won in overtime 1-0 in case you care, woof) so there were a few fans who wanted to see the game that had to hop on a plane to witness the final. But security, the riot police, apparently blamed too many people arriving without tickets that somehow gained access to the grounds that caused all the security problems, which led them to close the entrance gates leaving people with valid tickets unable to watch the game. They further explained fans WITH tickets should have shown up early to guarantee access. Sorry, but in every sporting event I've been too, you could show up five minutes before the game ends if you wanted and still get to your seats. To throw salt in the wound, the Qatar people who organized the event said they'll "consider" issuing refunds to the people with valid tickets who were shut out. What? Consider? (The day after the event, they wised up and announced refunds were coming).
Qatar was recently awarded the 2022 World Cup, and I bet FIFA officials are reviewing that decision already. I can only imagine the disappointment of being a fan who saved their money and planned their time to come out to such a huge event and endure such heartache when you can't get into the event you paid for and looked forward to.
The NFL tried to make amends with the Superbowl fans by giving back three times the face value of the tickets, in addition to free tickets for next year's event. Much better compensation than the Qatar people offered, but still, if you're a Green Bay fan, you missed seeing your team win it all. Would you be excited to see the Bills play the Cardinals in 2012? Not likely.
I hope nothing ever like that happens to me with my future Senators Stanley Cup final tickets.
# posted by SBP : 10:14 PM
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